Our Latest Project - 2011 Camaro SS Convertible
Posted at 2:00 PM / May 26, 2011
There is nothing quite like a thrash to get a vehicle ready prior to a major event. No matter how much time most of us usually have in advance notice of that pending show or race, we always seem to find ourselves wrenching like mad in the final few weeks remaining. This project was no different, but mostly due to the vehicle being purchased only a little over a month ago.
Our mission was simple on this one. Acquire a new 2011 Camaro SS convertible, and build a booth marketing car to be featured during Hotrod Magazine Power Tour 2011. This Camaro SS will be featured in the Magna Charger booth at all seven cities of this year's event, alongside a 392 Hemi Challenger and a new 5.0 Mustang GT - all equipped with superchargers, of course. We had just over 1 month to complete the build, and we finished about a week early.
The Victory Red ragtop was purchased from Buckalew Chevrolet, in Conroe, TX. Mr. Eddy Cotton was excellent to deal with, and the sale went through smoothly. The car is a 2SS/RS with the 6.2L L99 engine and 6-speed automatic transmission. MSRP on the car was $43,605 for those curious. Other than the paint work, all of the assembly of this project was performed at Deviate Motoring in Conroe, TX (www.DV8Motoring.com).
Once the Camaro was in hand, it went straight to Kustom Werx in Conroe, TX to get the custom paint work completed. They stripped the clearcoat off of the panels to be redone, and laid down a nice pair of retro style Z28 stripes under the clearcoat. The rear tail panel was given the satin black treatment, as was the front grille area. We installed the GM Heritage grille, also painted satin black. The sidemarker lights were custom painted in Victory Red, to minimize the plastic area viewable. To finish it off, we installed a set of 1969 Camaro SS emblems front and rear. The more modern Camaro fender emblems were removed to clean up the side profile. The entire custom paint process took almost 2 weeks to complete, leaving us only a couple weeks to perform the rest of the modifications lined up.
Magna Charger (www.MagnaCharger.com) was tapped to add a chrome TVS2300 supercharger kit to the project, which led the vehicle to be selected as a display car in their booth. Since the car is going to see almost 4,000 miles in one week of the Power Tour, we stuck with the OEM reliability and quality found in their systems. Once the tour is over, the Camaro will become a daily driven showcar.
MBRP Exhaust (www.MBRP.com) was all ears when they heard we had another project vehicle in the works, and we selected their L99 dual 3" stainless catback system to wake up the volume of the hotrod. This was the first convertible with their system installed, so we also had to custom fabricate a few supports for the chassis, gladly passing along the notes to them for future kits. The OEM exhaust was horribly restrictive and quiet on the convertible, and a vast improvement in sound was greatly welcomed.
Pfadt (www.PfadtRacing.com) coil-over suspension is highly regarded in the performance aftermarket industry, and we felt it was the best engineered system on the market for the Camaro. They supplied a set of their adjustable coil-overs for the convertible, and these items are a work of art. It is too bad most people would never see these suspension parts, they are a joy to look at. The adjustable damping knobs are also within easy reach, located at the bottom of each strut. Installation was a snap, it took us less than an hour! Having the ability to adjust the ride height at each corner results in a precise stance, custom tailored to fit our desires.
Modulare Forged wheels (www.ModulareWheels.com) accepted our short schedule requirements, and their beautiful model M11 wheels adorn our Hotrod. Modulare manufactures wheels in the Dallas, TX area, and offer an entire lineup of custom paint work and finishes. We selected brushed centers, gloss black lip and inner hoop, gloss black register, and a Victory Red lip pinstripe as a throwback to the retro theme. These 3-piece wheels measure 22x9.0 up front, and 22x11.0 on the rear. Tires are Pirelli PZero Nero, 265/30 front and 315/25 rear.
To dress up the engine bay, we selected a set of billet valve covers from Billet Custom Products (www.BilletCustomProducts.com). The level of quality and precision found in these covers and their excellent packaging were off the chart. It is rare that we find a product so well thought out and packaged properly. Truly a top-notch benchmark set of valvecovers. Showstopper Accessories engine bay covers and billet reservoir caps finished off the underhood dress.
The brakes were upgraded with iRotors drilled/slotted rotors and a set of Hawk Performance Ceramic brake pads. We'll be painting the factory Brembo calipers Victory Red very soon.
Moving into the interior, we installed an OEM manual transmission shift boot to lose the plastic PRNDM section of the console. Then all of the massive acrylic panels were carefully removed from the car, prepped, and covered with 1969 Camaro Houndstooth material. Just the right touch of retro, to match the paint theme.
Stay tuned for future updates! We'll have this Camaro convertible on the Long Haul in a week.
